Contesting

Rules for each competition define the amateur radio bands, the mode of communication that may be used, and the kind of information that must be exchanged.

[1] Contests were also formed to provide opportunities for amateur radio operators to practice their message handling skills, used for routine or emergency communications across long distances.

[4] Most contests held in Europe on the VHF and microwave bands award 1 point per kilometre of distance between the stations making each contact.

Some contests also declare regional winners for specific geographic subdivisions, such as continents, countries, U.S. states, or Canadian provinces.

Many contests also offer team or club competitions in which the scores of multiple radio stations are combined and ranked.

Contest sponsors have crafted competitive events that serve to promote a variety of interests and appeal to diverse audiences.

Contests like the European HF Championship[8] aim to foster competition between stations located in one particular part of the world, specifically Europe.

[14] Some contests, especially those restricted to a single radio frequency band, allow the competing stations to use several different emissions modes.

The rules and structure of a particular contest can determine the strategies used by competitors to maximize the number of contacts made and multipliers earned.

To complement the burst of activity and interest being generated in DX communications by the popularity of the International Relay Parties, the ARRL adopted a competitive operating format for events designed for non-international contacts.

[20] The Sweepstakes required a more complicated exchange of information for each two-way contact that was adapted from the message header structure used by the National Traffic System.

The earliest known organized field day activity was held in Great Britain in 1930, and was soon emulated by small events through Europe and North America.

[23] Field day events were promoted as an opportunity for radio amateurs to operate from portable locations, in environments that simulate what might be encountered during emergency or disaster relief situations.

Recognizing the vitality and maturity of the sport, CQ Amateur Radio magazine established the Contest Hall of Fame in 1986.

The first "face to face" World Radiosport Team Championship event was held in July, 1990 in Seattle, Washington, United States, and was an effort to overcome some of these issues by inviting the top contesters from around the world to operate a single contest from similar stations in one compact geographic area.

Subsequent WRTC events have been held in 1996 (San Francisco, California, United States), 2000 (Bled, Slovenia), 2002 (Helsinki, Finland), and 2006 (Florianópolis, Brazil).

[30] There have been controversies among amateur operators over the impact of dense contest traffic on the popular HF bands, the use of packet cluster systems, log editing, rare station QSYs and other techniques.

In a specialised contest in the microwave frequency bands, where only a handful of radio amateurs have the technical skills to construct the necessary equipment, a few contacts just a few kilometers away may be enough to win.

In the most popular VHF contests, a well-equipped station in a densely populated region like Central Europe can make over 1,000 contacts on two meters in twenty-four hours.

In the CQ World Wide DX Contest, the world's largest HF contest, leading multi-operator stations on phone and CW can make up to 25,000 contacts in a forty-eight-hour period, while even single operators with world-class stations in rare locations have been known to exceed 10,000 contacts, an average of over three per minute, every minute.

In contests on the VHF and higher frequency bands, having a location at a high altitude with unobstructed line of sight in all directions is also a major advantage.

With range limited to around 1000 kilometers in normal radio propagation conditions, a location on high ground close to a major metropolitan area is an often unbeatable advantage in VHF contests.

More serious radio contesters will spend significant sums of money and invest a lot of time building a potentially winning station, whether at home, a local mountain top, or in a distant country.

The rules for most field day events require or strongly incent participating stations to use generator or battery power, and temporary antennas.

[33] The peak rate of contacts that can be made during contests that employ longer exchanges with more information that must be sent, received, and acknowledged, will be necessarily lower.

Some contest software even provide a means to control the station equipment via computer, retrieve data from the radio and send pre-recorded Morse code, voice or digital messages.

Most contests enforce stiff points penalties for inaccuracies in the log, which means that the need for speed in operation must be balanced against the requirement for accuracy.

It is not uncommon for a station to lead in points at the end of the contest, but slip behind a more accurate competitor after the cross-checking process has assessed penalties.

[34] Most contests are sponsored by organizations that either publish a membership journal, or sell a radio enthusiast magazine as their business.

In addition to publication in magazines and journals, many contest sponsors also publish results on web sites, often in a format similar to that found in print.